Friday, December 31, 2010

When I realized that I wasn’t coaxing students to work hard on their research paper by bribing them with donuts at the end, I knew something was up. They were working hard without that carrot. Hmmm. They’ve always had a lot of latitude in picking their topic, so that wasn’t it.

What was different this time?

First, I let students choose their tools. For a long time, I’ve used this project as a chance for students to work on their web searching skills, and to practice using http://www.CitationMachine.net to help create their bibliography.

This year, instead of making students use notecards for note-taking, I let them use the tool of their choice. Many chose to use Word for notes, but a few used Zoho Notebook. (We had to use a tool that either already existed on their computers, or a web-based tool that didn’t have to be installed on a school computer.) I still made students print down copies of articles they found and highlight, because some kids won’t read anything until 8 PM on the night before the draft is due if you don’t give them regular milestones along the way. How they took notes after that was up to them.

But letting students choose their tool made a difference. Their outlines and reports were still well-organized (the reason I originally required notecards), but when I let them choose what worked best for them, students were a lot more invested in the work.

Second, I added reflection. Each student had their own thread as part of a Moodle discussion forum; every week, students wrote about their experiences that week – the frustrations, the breakthroughs, the cool things they discovered about the person they were researching. I responded with suggestions, encouragement, attaboys, and resources.

Giving students a chance to think about what they were learning added a depth to the project that it hasn’t had for them before. It also gave them the chance to identify problems (such as finding the same information over and over due to a simplistic search strategy, or difficulty with a sibling hogging the home computer), and get help.

This may seem small, but kids don’t always respond when you ask the class face-to-face if they have questions or need help; some just won’t say that in front of the class. The reflection-teacher response cycle also added a powerful teacher-student connection. Each student got specific, personal, individual attention – and what kid doesn’t want that? (I’ve written about this before: http://adventuresonlineteaching.blogspot.com/2010/11/feedback-improving-student-teacher.html)

Two different ways to support learners, both effective.

We still had our traditional end-of-project donuts, because it’s worth celebrating a major accomplishment. But for the first time, the papers reflected a stunning amount of effort. The strong students weren’t just going through the motions to get the work done; their work glittered. Even the students who hate to write all worked mightily; when they turned in well-organized, interesting, virtually error-free papers, on time, it was a major milestone.

Looking back, I realized that this wasn’t a project that we suffer through any more. Instead, we were all energized, enriched. My students’ skill-base was expanded and strengthened. We wrote research papers, and – I never thought I’d say this - we had fun.

Sidebar- Why don’t I give students different options in presenting their work, not just formal written papers? Because I teach in a Catholic school, and Catholic school students learn to write. :)

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

As I continue to teach hybrid middle school classes (a blend of online and face to face), I continue to see differences between teaching K12 online and teaching adults. I’ve just finished reading The Online Teaching Survival Guide by Judith Boettcher and Rita-Marie Conrad; a terrific book, and enormously helpful, but all through it I kept thinking, “yes, but…”

Adult classes are typically short, often just 8 weeks long. K12 classes last for around 36 weeks. This makes teaching K12 online or hybrid very different.

For example, the planning cycle is different. I confess that don’t yet have a year’s worth of online activities all ready to go in September for my middle-schoolers. With an 8 week class for adults, you really have to have everything planned and ready to go ahead of time. Yes, I have objectives and curriculum, and yes, I have many activities, units, and lessons from the past that support the objectives and curriculum, and from which I will heavily borrow. But every year I change things, based on what worked – and didn’t work – last time. Sometimes based on the personalities and capabilities of this year’s kids. And as I become more adept with Moodle during the year, I try whole new things. This is a work in progress.

Another thing: the rhythm is different. There is an intensive gearing up that takes place with adults because of the time constraints. You quickly break the ice, break down barriers, help students find common ground, build community, into a crescendo of interaction that strengthens both learning and community. At the same time, learners are interacting more and more deeply with the content as they fold their learning into their own lives and make it their own. And then it’s over.

With K12, yes, you build community, but it’s an ongoing effort that lasts 9 months. Some kids already know each other, but there are always new kids who need to find a way in. Kids stop participating and you have to address that. Kids aren’t so nice to each other and you have to address that. Kids get sick, have parents deployed to war zones. Kids have good days and spectacularly awful ones. It’s pretty much all the time, and it’s for the long haul.

The rhythm in K12 gets wrapped around units and also around activities that weave through the whole year. A unit starts with interest and hopefully excitement. Students may dive in or just dip their toes, but there is momentum that builds, peaks, and wraps up; sounds a lot like an adult course. Then we start again on another unit, and another, all year. And as with music, the regular notes of repeated activities sound all year.

I love the intensity of an adult class, but it’s short-lived. One thing I love about K12 is that I get to work with my students all year. That time gives us the chance to explore, stumble, figure out, practice, and then practice some more.

But for all the differences, there is one big similarity. It’s all about connections. When the teacher/facilitator/guide creates meaningful connections with learners, that’s when the learning really goes into high gear.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

First, a heartfelt thanks to the Moodle community, all the people who generously share what they’ve learned so that we can all improve learning and teaching. Here are some of the resources the Moodle community has created:

Sample courses:
These are copies of courses that you can look at to see how they’re put together.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Last semester I taught high school technology for the first time. This is a basic semester course taught in the computer lab – internet searching, safety, and reputation; Word, Excel, PowerPoint. Since I’ve been teaching technology in middle school for years focusing on the same skills, the content wasn’t a stretch. But high school students are very different from middle school students. So I spent the semester finding out what works best with this different age group.

Now, I want to use Moodle with these students. Moodle gives me more control over their learning environment, and it’s a natural choice for a technology class. I also want my students to have the experience of using online discussion, something they are very likely to experience in college classes. And since high school students are a little more aloof, I want to use reflection and discussion to draw out their learning.

Now that I’ve had experience with Moodle, and with creating online content, this is so much easier. I am not constantly cruising through my Moodle books trying to figure out how to accomplish something; now I’m just doing it. Nice to be farther along the learning curve!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

I wanted to have my students show their understanding of copyright and fair use issues, things we’ve been talking about all year, but which we had recently been focusing on. I used four different cases, situations described in a paragraph; students were to use one case and explain if there was a violation of copyright, and if the person in the case could change something so this became a case of fair use.

I tried to set it up as I had experienced this kind of assignment in adult classes, with the discussion referencing the cases on a link. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The students were confused by the two links – which were they supposed to click on, where were the cases again. Moodle has these nice icons that distinguish between documents and discussions – only students weren’t looking at those. Fortunately this is a hybrid class where I introduce new activities in the computer lab, so I could demonstrate what students needed to do and deal with the confusion. Really glad I didn’t make this a homework assignment. My students did fine once they understood what I wanted. But it is so humbling to think that you’ve been so clear, and then to find out that you were not.

While students feel free to click all over when they are surfing, this doesn’t necessarily happen in class. I suspect part of the reason for this is the antiquity of the computers in the lab – they are old and thus slow; students don’t really want to experiment and then have to sit and wait, which already happens all too often.

So, the lesson is, put everything together in one place as much as possible. I need to always be mindful of how my students will approach their work.

Friday, December 3, 2010

So I discovered it all over again: when I give my students more choice in the way they learn, they do better. Duh, Mrs. Lo, as they would say.

With vocabulary, in the past, I made students create flashcards. It had a grade attached so that they’d actually do it. And of course, students were frantically making flashcards at the last minute, just to get those points, rather than using flashcards to study with. Last year, I put all the words onto online flashcards – a few actually use them. But this year I tried two new things.

First, I put the words into context – yes, the textbook doesn’t do that. I wrote a story using the 20 words in the unit, made it a little silly. Here’s an example. I introduce the story in f2f class, so students can hear the words pronounced and tie in what they may already know about some of the words. Since this is turning into a “to be continued” story, we are all enjoying the story part, and I think it helps students understand the words better. (Thanks to Lisa Chamberlin and Kay Lehmann, my professors in Creating Collaborative Communities in E-learning, who suggested this).

The upshot: students who used to do poorly on the vocabulary tests because they didn’t study are consistently starting to do better. Making them do flashcards didn’t work, but giving them lots of different tools does (online flashcards, publisher podcasts, rich and funny resource in the discussion forum, words in context, even the not-that-interesting textbook exercises). Some kids make flashcards on their own because they’ve found that works for them.

But now since they choose how they learn it, they often choose to learn it.

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Fran Lo is a teacher trainer (for teachers in grades 6 to 12) and a teacher (Social Studies, English, and Technology). Her English classes incorporate so much technology that they have become hybrid/blended classes.